You are here

President Gerald Ford Presents Export Award

Southwestern Petroleum Corporation is a three-time winner of the Export 40 Award. This award is presented to the 40 companies in our area with the greatest increase in export business.

The latest Export 40 Award was presented to Senior Vice President Buddy Thomas, General Manager of Southwestern’s International Division, at a special awards luncheon featuring Carla Hills, former United States Trade Representative and a major negotiator in international trade agreements. The first award was presented to Chairman Art Dickerson by former United States President Gerald Ford. The second Export 40 Award was presented to Chairman Dickerson at a special awards luncheon by Gaston Thorn, former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations and President of the European Communities Commission.

Southwestern shared the latest award with a number of other outstanding companies such as General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Bell Helicopter Textron and LTV Corporation.

Southwestern products have been sold internationally almost since the company was founded in 1933. The first export orders were shipped to Canada in 1937, but in those early days and up until the mid-1950’s little emphasis was given to expansion outside the United States. In that era, the company’s export business originated mostly from Customers in the neighboring countries of Canada and the Caribbean area who had learned of the products from friends or business associates in the United States.

It was in 1955 that Southwestern first placed emphasis on setting up representation abroad, reaching out at that point to selected markets in Europe, the Far East and Latin America.